How Long Is Android 9 Supported
Florencia Abila
Updates are a big deal in the Android world. While Apple controls the iPhone update process, Google does not have that power over all Android devices. How are you supposed to know how long your Android phone will get updates? We'll help you.
When it comes to Android devices and updates, you can't look at all of Android as a whole. The question is not "when will my Android phone be supported?" It's "when will my [manufacturer] phone be supported?"
Before we dive in, there's one distinction that needs to be made. There are two types of Android updates: security updates and OS updates. Security updates are smaller and arrive more frequently. They don't typically include big changes, but they're very important.
Android upgrades or "major OS updates" are yearly. This is when Android 12 upgrades to Android 13, One UI 3 to One UI 4, etc. Typically, devices will get one more year of security updates after they receive their last OS upgrade.
Update timelines begin at the time of release. If a device was launched in October 2021 and receives five years of security updates, the last update will be in October 2026, regardless of when you purchased it.
Samsung releases a lot of Android devices, and they don't all receive the same amount of updates. Thankfully, the company maintains a detailed "Security Updates Scope" website with information for specific devices.
Starting with the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung upped the ante even more with seven years of updates. That's seven years of security updates and OS upgrades. The S24 series will be updated all the way to Android 21.
Updates are released on a monthly, quarterly, and biannual schedule. Newer Samsung devices prior to the S24 series receive updates more frequently. Devices launched in 2019 or later receive four years of security updates, while newer devices receive up to five years.
In addition to those security updates, Samsung offers four Android upgrades for a majority of its devices. The list of those devices can be found on Samsung's website, and it includes newer models from those series' as well.
Slightly older devices (Pixel 7 series, Pixel 6 series, Pixel 6A, and Pixel Fold) receive three years of Android upgrades and five years of security updates. The Pixel 5a through the Pixel 3a receive three years of Android upgrades and security updates. The Pixel 3 and older Pixels are no longer supported.
OnePlus claims that phones launched in 2023 and beyond will receive four years of Android upgrades and four years of security updates. Most OnePlus devices receive three years of Android upgrades and four years of security updates. Older devices receive two years of upgrades and three years of security updates. The Nord series gets one year of upgrades and three years of security updates
Motorola has one of the most lacking update strategies among Android manufacturers. It varies greatly depending on the device you have. Newer devices receive two Android upgrades and two years of security updates. You can look up your model on Motorola's website.
At the time of writing in October 2023, Samsung and Google are head and shoulders above the rest of the Android world when it comes to updates. Google is easily the top dog if you opt for the company's latest and greatest devices.
Every Microsoft product has a lifecycle, including Xamarin. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to upgrade or make other changes to your software. This product is governed by the Microsoft Modern Lifecycle.
Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac are now integrated directly into .NET (starting with .NET 6) as .NET for Android, .NET for iOS, and .NET for Mac. If you're building with these project types today, they should be upgraded to .NET SDK-style projects for continued support.
Current releases include new features that may undergo future change based on feedback. These releases are a good choice for applications in active development, giving you access to the latest features, improvements, and critical updates to work with the underlying external dependencies (such as Xcode, or Android SDK Tool).
This release type receives critical fixes throughout its lifecycle, for security, reliability, or to add support for new release versions. You must stay up to date with the latest patches to qualify for support.
This is on the assumption that current dependencies such as the Xcode (for Xamarin.iOS) and Android Tools (for Xamarin.Android) do not change from the last release and support will not be guaranteed for any newer releases of third-party dependencies.
End of support refers to the date when Microsoft no longer provides fixes, updates, or online technical assistance. As this date nears, make sure you have the latest available update* installed. Without Microsoft support, you'll no longer receive security updates that can help protect your machine from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software that can steal your personal information.
* Updates are cumulative, with each update built upon all of the updates that preceded it. A device needs to install the latest update to remain supported. Updates may include new features, fixes (security and/or non-security), or a combination of both. Not all features in an update will work on all devices. Update availability may vary, for example by country/region, network connectivity, or hardware capabilities (including, for example, free disk space).
We have the usual toolchain updates, improved defaults for better security and performance, and are making changes to our release process to better accommodate users that need stability without hindering those that want new features.
This release comes with new minimum system requirements. Following Android Studio and the SDK, 32-bit Windows is no longer supported. While this change will not affect most developers, this change does have an impact if you use 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows. Linux users must have glibc 2.17 or newer.
More detail, including the criteria we will use to determine what will be backported, what kinds of bugs will trigger a point release, and the bar we hold each release to can be found documented on our GitHub Wiki.
The toolchain has been updated to r365631 (the master branch as of 10 July 2019). This includes fixes for quite a few bugs in the previous release, perhaps most importantly LLD no longer hangs when using multithreaded linking on Windows. OpenMP is now available as a dynamic library (and this is the new default behavior, so link with -static-openmp if you want to stick with the static runtime).
A handful of driver improvements have been made to reduce the amount of compiler configuration required by each build system as well. Build system owners should check the updated Build System Maintainers guide.
Fortify is now enabled by default when using ndk-build or the CMake toolchain file (this includes ExternalNativeBuild users). Fortify enables additional checks in the standard library that can help catch bugs sooner and mitigate security issues. For example, without fortify the following code compiles fine:
It is not always possible for the compiler to detect this issue at compile-time. In those cases, a run-time check will be used instead that will cause the program to abort rather than continue unsafely.
Note that because run-time support is required for fortify and the feature was gradually added to Android over time, the exact set of APIs protected by fortify depends on your minSdkVersion. Fortify is an improvement, but it is not a replacement for good tests, ASan, and writing safe code.
As before, this behavior can be disabled for apps that need to continue supporting devices without Neon. Alternatively, those devices can be blacklisted in the Play Console. See -arm-neon for more information.
Regardless of why an organization deploys mobile devices, IT teams need to develop a plan to manage and support them. The Android OS is available on more devices from different OEMs than the Apple iOS is, so the length of support for Android devices varies and can present challenges for IT administrators.
Supporting these devices goes beyond what IT teams must do to troubleshoot performance issues. It also includes the support they get from vendors when there are problems with the device's hardware or OS. Support for the OS is especially critical because it ensures that users will continue to receive important security updates.
Failure to understand the lifespan of enterprise devices can put organizations at risk, so IT must know what affects an Android's lifespan and how that factors into effective endpoint management. There are a few considerations that can help admins define the overall lifecycle length of their organization's Android smartphones.
It's vital for organizations to purchase Android hardware from a vendor that provides support. Still, there are several small vendors that sell Android-based devices on Amazon, eBay, Alibaba and other online stores that don't offer a way for customers to access support or warranties.
More established brands can provide support directly or through their resellers, so it's safer to purchase enterprise Android devices from a company that is known to provide support for its enterprise customers. Companies such as Samsung have also been making Android devices for a long time and are likely to have far longer support for their hardware than other newcomers to the mobile space.
With Apple devices, the maker of the hardware is also the maker of the operating system, but this is not always the case for Android devices. As a result, Android hardware may have different end-of-life support than the operating system itself. Organizations that purchase these types of devices must track the length of support for the hardware from the manufacturer as well as Google's end-of-life support for the different versions of Android OS.
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